5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
A Life of Business
David Plaskett
BUS 1050
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
A Life of Business
Over the time spent in this course I have learned more about how business affects my own
life and the lives around me more than ever. I loved how it helped us to think through different
philosophies of generations past and get a real hold of what made business the way that it is
today. At the beginning of this course I had vague views and insecure ideas about what makes
business work and how it can affect the world around us. I will admit that there was not many
times in which I really thought about what makes business what it is today. In this essay I hope to
share my thoughts and philosophies on business that I have acquired over the course of this
recent semester that are currently guiding me through my career and life.
During the first few weeks of this course I learned much about what it means to think
critically and how critical thinking is a vital to the process of successfully owning and/or running
a business. I enjoyed William Golding’s (Golding 1961) theories on how to think critically. I
believe that if everyone were to learn how to somehow come to come to ‘grade one’ thinking,
then the world would be a much better place. However, the reality of it is that most people really
only tend to achieve ‘grade one’ thinking a few times in their lives. I believe that what Jacob
Needleman (Moyers 1989) points out ties in really well with my idea by saying, “When you’re in
the middle of an earthquake you begin to question, what is it that I really need?” (Line10, page
317).
The most frustrating feelings I have ever felt are those that come when I am trying to solve
a riddle for the first time and know that I am about to solve the puzzle but am unable to. The
same feeling comes when I know that I want to express myself but am unable to. Just as in the
Excerpt from Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Lawrence 1928) where in right after Mr. Clifford has just
commented how Miss Connie is not a hopeless figure (line 25 page 180) it describes, “…She
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
wondered with rage, why it was she felt Clifford was so wrong, yet she couldn’t say it to him, she
could not say exactly where he was wrong.” This is what the majority of people feel when they
think of problems that they are faced with today. They are angry, frustrated at the problem but
unable to voice their beliefs. This can be seen in the manner in which people complain or riot in
the streets today. Or as Mike Leferve (Terkel 1972) would put it, “When I was single, I used to
go into bars, get in a lot of brawls. Just to explode” (line 4, page 188).
Mike Levfevre (Terkel 1972) was of course speaking of when he was younger and without
any direction towards a healthy career. This in turn created feelings of being frustrated and at a
loss of how to change his life. He did what he could but it did not feel like it was enough. Later
in the excerpt of Mike LeFevre, Steel Worker Mike explains how even though he does not like
his effete snob of a manager he would rather that his kids become effete snobs in order to get a
job that did not involve manual labor like the steel factory where he had been working his whole
life. I feel that I can relate personally to Mike and his ideals because I too have felt that what I am
doing is not sufficient and if I do not try to change or find my career that I want I will become as
he mentions, “I hope to God I never get broke in” (line 7 page 187). I too hope that I do not go
into some random job and becoming ‘broke in’ as Mike explained in his interview. Which leads
me to ask what am I doing with my life?
I recently read an excerpt of the interview performed by Bill Moyers with Jacob Needleman
(Moyers 1989) in which I found two of his ideas that have thus far helped me to answer the
above question. The first idea that I found was the concept of being in ‘conscious time’, or as Dr.
Needleman puts it, “Well, “conscious time” happens in certain moments of one’s life, maybe
great crisis of emergency or great joy. It’s an unforgettable, vivid moment of being present in
oneself. Suddenly time has quite a different sense” (line 13, page 319). His second idea that I
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
found insightful was when Moyers asks if Dr. Needleman believes that humans are supposed to
live in two different worlds. Dr. Needleman (Moyers 1989) responds, “Absolutely. The one
world is the world we live in everyday, this world of action and activity and doing… The
direction toward the other world appears in these special moments. We have intimations of it in
our feelings, sometimes when we come in touch with great art, or literature, or philosophy, or
nature. We have a certain feeling, a certain longing that we can’t quite put into words” (line 3,
page 320). It is these moments in which people will most often ask themselves grade one
questions about their own lives and what they need to change in order to make it better. These are
the moments in which people will make amends, change, or become heroic in their own sense of
being. An example similar to the above scenario was mentioned in the reading of Tulipomania
(Mackey 1841).
Tulipomania (Mackey 1841) occurred in the early 1600s and as the name might suggest,
this is when a part of the world went crazy over the thought of owning a tulip. It was during this
time that the general populace would value a tulip root over great amounts of food, clothing and
even precious metals. Often was the case in which an unfortunate soul would unknowingly come
across a tulip bulb thinking it an onion and eat it. Soon thereafter the owner would come across
the unfortunate soul of his now late fortune and then throw the poor soul to the magistrates in
order to find some recompense for his lost fortune. During this short period of time many of
those involved with this mania for tulips would be so consumed by the imagined value of a tulip
so as to forget the things are truly valued in life. At the end of the mania of tulips many people
were either flat broke or had gained an extreme amount of wealth due to their lucrative trading.
The entire country of the Dutch became one of the poorest countries in that time due to the drop
of value in the tulip almost overnight. It was at the end of the mania in which people began to
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
question the value that their entire country had put into tulips versus what is truly important to
help run a country.
I believe that Mike LeFevre (Terkel 1972) had the same feeling that Dr. Needleman
(Moyers 1989) had described when he spoke of how we have a certain feeling or longing of
something greater. I think that this is why people will generally feel angry or unable to describe
their feelings towards the helplessness that comes on when they begin to realize that they could
have done better. A piece of poetry that really speaks these feelings of frustration clearly to me is
this, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!"” (line
105 Whittier). To better avoid such feelings of frustration one must continually learn and study to
become better.
This in turn points us towards ensuring that we follow a career resilient path that will
enable us to continually create opportunities for ourselves. I believe that the term ‘broke in’ that
Mike Lefevre (Terkel 1972) uses describes the moment in which one stops trying to find a better
opportunity by improving one’s self either through school, work experience or to become
satisfied with where you have arrived. This is very much a new concept for our time. It replaces
the ‘old covenant’ (1994) which was mentioned in Toward a Career Resilient Workforce (1994).
This ‘old covenant’ (1994) worked for hundreds of years. It is the concept that when you
are hired into a company, you become loyal to that company and the company will do it’s best to
ensure that you have a job for as long as you work there. However, this ‘old covenant’ (1994) has
seemed to lost focus in the ever changing world of business. In the current world of business it is
required to be career-resilient oriented when it comes to searching for work and providing work
for companies. To be career-resilient oriented means those, “Who not only are dedicated to the
idea of continuous learning but also stand ready to reinvent themselves to keep pace with change;
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
who take responsibility for their own career management” (line 27 page 262). Realistically, this
is the most adaptable form of work ethic that will enable anyone, or any company to ideally
provide means to obtain success as a community.
Overall, the above ideas and concepts are those that I have learned over the course of this
past semester that I hope to use in order to better my business mindset and goals. I know that I
still have much to learn because it is clear to see that the world of business is forever changing
and will create new paths than need to be explored through learning and experience.
5/1/15 By David Plaskett. BUS 1050
References
John Greenleaf Whittier. 1807–1892. Yale Book of American Verse. 1912. Thomas R.
Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915).
Edward G. Engh. (n.d.). Critical Thinking, Readings from the Literature of Business and Society.
Boston MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.
William Golding. (1961). Thinking as a Hobby. Holiday Magazine.
Studs Terkel. (1972). Mike LeFevre, Steel Worker. Random House, Inc.
Robert H. Waterman Jr. et al. (1994). Toward a Career Resilient Workforce. Harvard Business
School Publishing.
Bill Moyers. (1989). Jacob Needleman, Philosopher. Public Affairs Television, Random House,
Inc.